eList 109: New Acquisitions and Select Books from Stock.
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(SHELLEY, Mary?) Mounseer Nongtongpaw: A New Version. (COVER-TITLE: Mounseer Nongtongpaw, Or, The Discoveries of John Bull In A Trip To Paris. Illustrated With Beautiful Copper Plates.)
London: Printed for M. J. Godwin, At The Juvenile Library, 1815 (upper wrapper dated 1816.) Fourth edition, so stated. (First published by Godwin in 1808). 12mo., orig. brown paper spine, printed paper wrappers (it is unclear if the spine is original but it is contemporary), (40)pp., with 16 numbered pages of text and 12 full-page hand-coloured illustrations (verso only). Some browning to the edges of the leaves, stain on upper wrapper, spine chipped away, some rubbing and light wear to wrappers but this is still a very good copy of this delicate chapbook. Rare. One location in OCLC, Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books in the Toronto Public Library system. While it is not listed in the Osborne's printed catalogue, the Osborne does indeed hold a copy of this chapbook. OCLC only lists the Osborne copy.
‘This story about an English man refusing to learn French while in France had its beginnings in 1796 as a comic song by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814). Each time the man discusses anything with a French local or asks a question, the French-speaking citizens answer "Monsieur, je ne vous-entends pas" ("Sir, I do not understand you"). John Bull mistakenly thinks that each person is talking about a "Mounseer NongTongPaw" which he puts together phonetically due to his misunderstanding, and gets the idea that this person is so rich that he owns Versailles, and a beautiful woman. Near the end of the rhyme John Bull sees a hearse where once again he understands that it is Mounseer NongTongPaw who is deceased.
For a long time this particular reworked version of Mounseer NongTongPaw was not attributed to Mary Godwin Shelley, rather to her father William Godwin. However, in the 1980 copy of Peter and Iona Opie's Nursery Companion where this work was present, for the first time Mary was given credit for her work. The evidence comes from a letter sent by William Godwin to his publisher on January 2, 1808: "… in small writing is the production of my daughter in her eleventh year, & is strictly modelled, as far as her infant talents would allow, on Dibdin's."
It is not hard to imagine that Mary had such abilities at age eleven considering that only six years later she would write the novel that sparked an entire new genre, now known as science fiction. Although it is safe to assume that her father had reworked and edited some of her work, we have it in his own writing that Mary herself created this comical rhyme about John Bull's misunderstandings of the French language.' ( https://osborneeighteenthcenturychildrensliterature.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/mounseer-nongtongpaw-by-mary-godwin-shelley/ )
$3,750
(SHELLEY, Mary?) Mounseer Nongtongpaw: A New Version. (COVER-TITLE: Mounseer Nongtongpaw, Or, The Discoveries of John Bull In A Trip To Paris. Illustrated With Beautiful Copper Plates.) London: Printed for M. J. Godwin, At The Juvenile Library, 1815 (upper wrapper dated 1816.) Fourth edition, so stated. (First published by Godwin in 1808). 12mo., orig. brown paper spine, printed paper wrappers (it is unclear if the spine is original but it is contemporary), (40)pp., with 16 numbered pages of text and 12 full-page hand-coloured illustrations (verso only). Some browning to the edges of the leaves, stain on upper wrapper, spine chipped away, some rubbing and light wear to wrappers but this is still a very good copy of this delicate chapbook. Rare. One location in OCLC, Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books in the Toronto Public Library system. While it is not listed in the Osborne's printed catalogue, the Osborne does indeed hold a copy of this chapbook. OCLC only lists the Osborne copy.
‘This story about an English man refusing to learn French while in France had its beginnings in 1796 as a comic song by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814). Each time the man discusses anything with a French local or asks a question, the French-speaking citizens answer "Monsieur, je ne vous-entends pas" ("Sir, I do not understand you"). John Bull mistakenly thinks that each person is talking about a "Mounseer NongTongPaw" which he puts together phonetically due to his misunderstanding, and gets the idea that this person is so rich that he owns Versailles, and a beautiful woman. Near the end of the rhyme John Bull sees a hearse where once again he understands that it is Mounseer NongTongPaw who is deceased.
For a long time this particular reworked version of Mounseer NongTongPaw was not attributed to Mary Godwin Shelley, rather to her father William Godwin. However, in the 1980 copy of Peter and Iona Opie's Nursery Companion where this work was present, for the first time Mary was given credit for her work. The evidence comes from a letter sent by William Godwin to his publisher on January 2, 1808: "… in small writing is the production of my daughter in her eleventh year, & is strictly modelled, as far as her infant talents would allow, on Dibdin's."
It is not hard to imagine that Mary had such abilities at age eleven considering that only six years later she would write the novel that sparked an entire new genre, now known as science fiction. Although it is safe to assume that her father had reworked and edited some of her work, we have it in his own writing that Mary herself created this comical rhyme about John Bull's misunderstandings of the French language.' ( https://osborneeighteenthcenturychildrensliterature.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/mounseer-nongtongpaw-by-mary-godwin-shelley/ )
$3,750
